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Re: Glenn Gould's Valentine's Day with Barbra...or Dell?

At 03:52 AM 2/15/01 +0000, Kate Clunies-Ross wrote:
Bradley wrote:-

> If Glenn Gould were alive today, this is one of those evenings where we
> *know* what he would be doing.  He'd be sitting with a box of Arrowroots
> and a Poland water, watching the televised Barbra Streisand farewell
concert.
>
> Yes?
>
  Oh Bradley, no! I know Glenn was a  solitary chap; but do we have to
imagine such a lonely Valentines Day for him? Can't he finally contact that
"certain beaut. girl" and invite her round to his apartment where she
could.... well, scramble some eggs for him, at least?


Fair enough.  During the commercials he could explain to his guest the
organ registrations that Streisand used in her voice, and make salient
points about the expressive freedom of her interpretations.  Streisand with
play-by-play and colour commentary.  Then the Schwarzkopf records would be
pulled out and played for comparison, and GG would again bemoan the fact
that Barbra still hasn't done a Dowland album 25 years after he suggested
it.  Finally, late into the night, parallels would be drawn between
Streisand's career, the milieu (not to mention the Zeitgeist) of Strauss'
"Metamorphosen," and the poignant use of Janacek's string quartet in "The
Unbearable Lightness of Being."

But even with that elaborate evening, wouldn't the guest more likely be
there by phone rather than in person?

As GG said in the preamble of his review of _Classical Barbra_, "Hers is
indeed a manner of much greater intimacy, but an intimacy that
(astonishingly, for this repertoire) is never overtly in search of sexual
contact.  Streisand is consumed by nostalgia; she can make of the torchiest
lyric an intimate memoir, and it would never occur to her to employ the
'I'll meet you precisely 51% of the way' piquancy of, say, Helen Reddy,
much less the 'I won't bother to speak up 'cause you're already spellbound,
aren't you?' routine of Peggy Lee."



Bradley Lehman, Dayton VA
home: http://i.am/bpl or  http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
clavichord CD's: http://listen.to/bpl or http://www.mp3.com/bpl
trumpet and organ: http://www.mp3.com/hlduo

"Music must cause fire to flare up from the spirit - and not only sparks
from the clavier...." - Alfred Cortot